Scots muscle up, earn split on trip

After The College of Wooster men's basketball team came into the Don Lane Classic on a six-game winning streak, getting outplayed Tuesday by host Transylvania down the stretch seemed to test its mettle.

As a result, on Wednesday the Fighting Scots responded against Mount St. Joseph with a little more muscle.

The Scots (8-2) used a decisive 35-22 edge on the boards and was in control for the entire second half en route to a 65-52 victory over the Lions (5-5). Wooster trailed by four late in the first half before the break, but closed the period on a 14-5 roll and also came out of the intermission on a 9-2 run.

"It was good bounce-back victory," said Wooster coach Steve Moore. "It would've been easy to be discouraged. You don't like to lose, but we can learn from that loss."

Trailing 22-18 with 6:28 to go, Kenny DeBoer converted a layup to cut MSJ's advantage to a bucket, but Andy Countryman added a layup of his own to make it 24-20. From there, Scott Purcell nailed a 3-pointer, his lone bucket of the night, and Jake Mays sank two straight jumpers to put Wooster up 27-24. A jumper by DeBoer made it a five-point game with 3:28 left, but a 3-pointer by Countryman and layup by Kunkel tied it at 29-29. DeBoer's 3-pointer put Wooster up at the half.

A night after being plagued by foul trouble and being limited to just four points and no rebounds, Mays more than made up for it against MSJ, putting up team-highs of 16 points and eight rebounds. The 6-foot-8 center's inside presence was a major reason the Scots bounced back on the boards.

"Jake responded and had a good night," said Moore.

DeBoer, making his second start of the season due to MSJ's perimeter-oriented lineup, added 12 points, while Doug Thorpe chipped in 11 off the bench and Xavier Brown tallied 10.

"We had good balance with four guys in double figures," said Moore.

The biggest difference, though, was Wooster's defensive effort in the second half. The Lions shot just 6-for-20 in the final 20 minutes and were held to 23 points. Brown limited Joel Scudder to just 5-for-12 shooting, while Evan Pannell held David Mann to 3-for-12 from the field.

"In the second half, we held them to 30 percent shooting," said Moore. "They have good shooters and they're not an easy team to defend. That was the key to the game."

With the victory, Wooster has now won six of its last seven away from home. While Tuesday's setback to Transylvania was looked at as an upset, the host Pioneers continued their surge on Wednesday with an 86-73 victory over Franklin and Marshall, which came into the contest at 7-0 and ranked No. 8 in the country. The Lions, meanwhile, had given the Diplomats all they could handle on Tuesday, nearly pulling the upset in 66-63 loss.

"It was a good tournament," said Moore. "It's important in the non-conference games to play good competition."

Thanks to a challenging non-conference slate, at the very least the Scots will resume North Coast Athletic Conference action a little stronger.

Andrew Vogel can be reached at 330-287-1624 or avogel@the-daily-record.com. Follow him on Twitter at @andvogel.